Maintaining Structure In Your Kid’s Lives During A Family Court Matter

Children whose parents are going through a divorce and custody battle can often times begin to exhibit negative behavioral traits that are indicative of them feeling overwhelmed, stressed out and confused about how the entire family legal issue is affecting the family. Children in custody battle situations are very vulnerable to stress related issues such as acting out in school or at home, variations in personality or in extreme cases, total shut down of emotions or lack of energy in general. It’s important to keep your kids in a good state of mind during your divorce and potential custody battle. There are lots of ways to keep things running smoothly for your family if you’re going to family court with your ex. Here are some tips to help you maintain a good relationship with your kids and help them through this difficult process.

Ask And You Shall Receive. Observing your children to understand how they’re feeling about the whole situation is a good way to keep an eye on their emotional stability but that doesn’t give you the whole picture. Children can be difficult to read at times and the best way to see what’s going on in your child’s mind is to sit down and talk with them. There are several different ways to engage with them. Magicians use misdirection to take the audience’s eyes off of the rabbit in the hat in order to pull off the switch, likewise engaging your child in a passive activity while you discuss what’s going on in their head can be a great way for them to open up about their feelings without them being conscious of explaining how they’re feeling; the result is a more genuine expression of feelings rather than thinking too much before they answer the question. Throwing a baseball back and forth in the yard while you talk to them or having a discussion while you prepare dinner are just a couple ideas to kick around if you’re going to approach things like this.

Structured Environments.Children need some kind of structure in order to maintain a well balanced psychological perspective on things. In a family legal dispute involving custody or divorce, it’s even more important that your kids have something that is keeping them on track or you’ll have a child that is left confused. The whole point of providing structure in their lives is to give them the tools they need to function in society. Learning the rules and how to act are all part of growing up. If children are left to their own devices, the potential for bad behavior and poor habits to manifest themselves becomes greater; Think Lord of the Flies but not as extreme. The point is, if you don’t monitor them during this stressful time, bad things could start to come up that will be harder to break them off later on down the line. The importance of communication cannot be stressed enough.